Unleashing the Ideavirus

Unleashing the Ideavirus
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 www.ideavirus.com
Tweak The Formula And Make It Work
It may be possible to write down the key elements of building and spreading a virus as a
mathematical formula. No, I don’t think you’ll use it. But understanding the co-efficients
makes it far easier to see what’s important and what’s not. They also help you see the wide
range of factors that can help an idea go viral; focusing on the most highly leveraged factor
for 
your
idea is a first step in launching the virus.
Multiply these five factors:
[reputation benefit to powerful sneezer of recommending virus]
[selfish benefit to promiscuous sneezer of recommending virus]
[smoothness of sharing the virus with a friend]
[power of the amplifier used to spread positive word of mouth]
[frequency of interactions among hive members]
Divided by the sum of these two factors:
[number of times you need to expose someone in this hive in order for the virus to catch]
[number of different sneezers who have to recommend a virus to a given individual for it to
ignite]
And then multiply that by the product of these four factors:
[percentage of infected hive members likely to sneeze]
[number of people the infected sneezer is likely to contact]
[persistence of the virus (how long does a sneezer sneeze?)]
[number of people infected /(divided by) number of people in the hive]
Comments on each component:
[reputation benefit to powerful sneezer of recommending virus]
Powerful sneezers can’t be bought. But don’t forget that they 
are
selfishly motivated. Will
this make me look smart? Will it make someone else happy? Will it make the world a better
place? There are plenty of levers that motivate powerful sneezers to spread the word, and they
are often complicated and subtle. Some of our favorite powerful sneezers: Zagats, Linus

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